


Onii-san, Oni-san

by FeckedSpectrum



Category: Kamisama Hajimemashita | Kamisama Kiss
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Adorable, Children, Gen, New Years Yokai Market Festival, Puns & Word Play, Teenage Drama, Teenage Tomoe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 16:59:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2277621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeckedSpectrum/pseuds/FeckedSpectrum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tomoe fully expects to find a fight after escaping Akura-ou for a few minutes at the New Years Yokai Market Festival, but what he finds is a little more disturbing to him.</p>
<p>A/N: Takes place during the “lost years” so to speak, after Akura-ou finds Tomoe as a child in the drama CD and before they really find fame as a dangerous yokai pair in Tomoe’s adult years. Because Akura-ou dealing with Tomoe’s teenage angst gives me life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Onii-san, Oni-san

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone who hasn't listen to the drama CD or found the partial translation, Akura-ou finds Tomoe while Tomoe is a child living alone in a den, and decides to invite him to travel and fight with him as his brother. In this meeting, Akura-ou and other demons call Tomoe "Shorty," which irritates Tomoe.
> 
> Titles Explained: Onii-san is a formal way of referring to someone's brother, like "Onee-san" for older sister, which can also be used as "Name-nee-san." Otouto means “younger brother”, “Imouto” means “younger sister.” “Kitsune-san” and “Oni-san” basically means “Mr. Fox,” and “Mr. Oni.”

Tomoe had learned a few things about Akura-ou since deciding to travel with him a few decades ago. The first thing he learned was to treasure the few moments he had without the older yokai looming over him, babbling endlessly and calling him “shorty.” The second was to be wary when the oni was out of sight.

When he started walking away from the lively New Years Market Festival, carrying useless sweets and a tacky fox mask Akura-ou had insisted he buy, he was sure that he would find his comrade picking a fight with a bigger, drunker yokai. Tomoe simply hoped it would be a good fight, one that they could test their mettle in. He was starting to hate the ones that only began to boil his blood, only to be ended too soon. It was starting to seem unfair.

Instead, when he saw the tell-tale red mane poking over a stone bridge, he dropped the bag of sweets, stunned.

There was a gaggle of little Tanuki girls, younger than he was, gathered around the yokai in an attack formation. But they didn't even try to take advantage with their numbers, instead they were dancing or giggling or singing, two were even braiding his hair, cooing, “So soft, Onii-san!” “Do you use Suzume-nee-san's conditioner?”

The oni at least had the decency to look flustered when he saw Tomoe, standing up and brushing off the girls. “Tomoe! I was looking for you! Did you happen to see a Tanuki bro – ah, tea house in town?”

The fox tried not to roll his eyes. He was 40 years old, finally starting to grow into an adolescent body. He knew Tanuki women didn't run tea houses. Instead of the eye roll, he tried his best impression of the innocent kid Akura-ou thought of him as.“Yeah, they were having a special discount but I didn't have enough money, so I came to ask you for some. I've never had any tea there, but it seems like it's really good, since there's such a long line outside.”

It seemed to work, as Akura-ou almost shuddered. “Nope, totally broke. I honestly owe some guy some money, we're that broke. No tea this year.” The gaggle started to chip in with mindless, yet completely synchronized chants of 'Onii-san.' “But we should probably take these guys to the back of the tea house, someone was supposed to be in charge of them but they escaped.”

“No Yasu-sama!” a trio chanted in protest.

“Yasu-sama under-cooks rice and makes us eat it even if it's crunchy!”

“Wanna stay with Onii-san!”

“Onii-san! Onii-san!” the crowd chanted, now dangerous in its rebellion.

Instead of bristling as the tiny girls defied him, Akura-ou's ego fluffed visibly from his puffed chest and relaxed smile. “Now, now, it's late. Tomoe-chan will take you back home, and if you're nice you'll get candy.”

“Yay Kitsune-san!” the Tanuki girls chanted, swarming him. The instinctive fear that swept through him almost made him miss Akura-ou's flinch and darkening look.

Tomoe ignored the cries of 'Kitsune-san,' trying not to laugh. “You thought they were calling you Onii-san, didn't you, Oni-san?”

“Shut up before I shove them in a bag and toss them in the river,” Akura-ou growled, grabbing the bag of sweets from under the girls' feet.

The gaggle seemed to pay the threat no mind, now happy to claw at his arms, grasp at his hands, and even launch themselves onto his back to play with his ears. They squealed in excitement when he flicked his ears out of their tiny, pinching hands, only to hold on again. Yasu-sama, an unfortunate looking Tanuki woman beginning to fade from prime with frown lines and crow's feet, was less happy to see them than he was. 

He had conjured up a spectacular fantasy on the way through the market streets, thinking that Yasu would be beautiful and delighted by his kindness, so taken by his looks that she magicked the girls away with the same flick of the wrist that would draw her kimono to open, beckoning him to stay a while with her.

After seeing her, he was delighted enough to find Akura-ou still sulking on the bridge, stuffing candied nuts into his mouth as if enacting vengeance against the tiny girls. Of course, Tomoe couldn't leave that alone. “Do you have an older brother complex, Oni-san?”

The yokai bristled at him, then sighed. “Isn't it weird for them? Yokai aren't supposed to have families, most of us aren't born into them. But they call each other sister and auntie and on and on, like they have any right to.”

Like we don't get to. Tomoe really hadn't had the time to think about his own loneliness when he lived in his den, too young to understand it until he had someone to be around. Someone to call him brother. “Let's go home. I'm sleepy and the lights from the festival are too bright. You're probably drunk too, Onii-san.”

“Keep on with that and I'll finally get around to kicking your ass, shorty,” Akura-ou grumbled, shooting him a glare.

“Should I make a couple signs to hold up so you know what I mean when I speak, Oni-san?”

“Can't read, otouto-chan.”

“I'll get around to teaching you someday,” Tomoe promised, with no intention of following through. The last time he tried, Akura-ou immediately complained he was bored and started throwing rocks at a gang of Kappa.

“A little sister would be cute, though. When you get married, and that's a thousand years away, I'm going to call your wife imouto-chan. But I'll only let her marry you if she's cute enough.”

“An old geezer like you shouldn't get so drunk. I'm not getting married, love is stupid.”

“No one gets married for love, you get married to-” Akura-ou stopped himself, blinking slowly. “Drink tea. You should marry someone you who makes really good tea all the time. But that's after we kill all the other demons and take over the world or something. Thousands of years away. You'll be grown up by then.”

Tomoe couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes at this point. The stupid yokai was never going to see him as an adult, or anything but the tiny kitsune pup that fights alongside him. When left to his own devices, drunk and without a fight, Akura-ou was stupidly sentimental. “Whatever you say, Onii-san.”


End file.
